Before Applying

You can submit an application FROM one year in advance of your anticipated start date. At HKA we do not accept applications on a chronological basis so we do not enrol children on a ‘first-come-first-serve basis. There are a number of considerations before offering a child a place at the school. We strive to achieve diversity in each classroom so we look for a balance of gender, age, ethnicity, language, nationality, family blend, learning styles and learning needs.

Read through this entire section before you begin your application. Make sure that you have all the required information pre-scanned and uploaded to your computer and ensure that you have read through the website and the school's Mission.
We advise that you fill in your household information and then start with your eldest child. It is a good idea to have a text document open that will allow you to cut and paste any repeated information. For subsequent children you must use 'Add Prospect' to add their application.

The application fee is a one off payment that covers the following services:
- Family introduction and individualised visit to Hong Kong Academy.
- Online application processing and maintenance.
- Liaising with current school.
- Student shadow days (in Secondary School).
- Educational assessment of all application documents.
- Meetings with Principal or Specialists, for example, therapists or Learner Support team (if required).
- All standard face to face, group or online academic admissions assessment.
- Specialist english language attainment assessment (if required).
- Application is one time only and applications are valid until family enters the school (updates required by family). This means that you do not have to pay the application fee annually.

The application fee does not include:
- Extended assessments which may include Speech and/OT evaluations and classroom visits. These assessments may carry a pre-agreed additional fee and will result in specialist reports which will be the property of the parents.

At HKA we review all the applications in the wait pool when we know about a space coming up. Once we identify a student that we feel we would be a good match for, we will invite them to take the HKA assessment. In cases where there are no issues to address (such as additional support needs) we can usually make an offer within days of the assessment being completed.
As an International school, we have spaces that open up throughout the school year, however, most of our places open up between November and December for a January start and between April and June for an August start date.
Pre-school and Kindergarten places are usually assessed for and filled by March/April the previous school year. For example, we will assess in March for an August start.

Depending on the age of the applicant, it may take up to 60 mins per application form, including the input from the child. Once you have a log in to the Admissions Portal you can do the application in more than one sitting as long as you are pressing 'Save and Continue' along the way.

At HKA we prefer to enrol whole families rather than single children. The application process begins with your 'household' and then gathers information about individuals (the prospects/applicants). You must begin with your eldest child and then 'Add Prospect'. This retains your household and parent info and only gathers information on your child. To add a third or a fourth child - keep adding via 'Add Prospect'.

There is no expiration on the application but you will need to continue to send us progress reports and any change of personal information. If we do not have any updates from you for a year we will consider the application closed.

HKA always makes the final decision on grade placement. We stick rigidly to the age/grade cut-off in the early years. Further up the school we will consider honouring the grade levels already accomplished.

Your child’s application will not be complete until the teacher recommendations relevant to their grade level are handed in by their current school. This is a vital part of the admissions process and cannot be skipped.

Yes, please see our Family Policy regarding whole family applications. We do expect you to give us details of all siblings in order to us to prioritise the sibling application when it does come in. If sibling details are not included with the original application, we reserve the right not to apply the sibling priority.

This is entirely dependent on the grade level applying to, the time of year and the number of priority applications we have. Applicants looking for a space in the Learner Support programme can expect to wait much longer as this is a limited programme.

Yes. We have group assessments for PK1, PK2 and Kindergarten students. We have a reading, writing and maths assessment in Primary School and a MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) online assessment for Secondary School students. We are able to arrange remote, online assessments for applicants who cannot come to Hong Kong.
It is important to us that we get to meet with you as a family to allow us to get to know each other and ensure that you are making the right school choice for your child. We do not conduct formal interviews with students.

- You can upload JPG, GIF or PNG files.
- File size - 4MB maximum.
- Your photo should be square.
- You do not need a passport photo or studio shot but the photo should clearly show your child's face.
- The ideal pixel size for your photo is between 200x200px & 500x500px. If either width or height exceeds 4000 pixels, your photo will not upload.

Yes. When you add a new parent in the application, you will have the option of creating a user account for that person. Please note that usernames are based on individual email addresses so you need to provide a unique, valid email address for each user account you would like to create.

Click the “Forgot your password?" link on the Admission Portal login page and an email will be sent to you with instructions on resetting your password. Please note that you must enter the email address that you used to create your user account.